Most compacted powder pills used for medical purposes are disk shaped and of a predetermined size corresponding to a specific dosage. This specific dosage may be more or less than the dosage prescribed by the attending physician for the patient. For example, it is not uncommon for a physician to instruct a patient to take one half of the pill three times a day or to take one and a half pills on each of alternate days or some other dosage or frequency which involves the necessity of taking half of the pill.
In view of this common practice, pills are frequently provided with a diametrical score mark to facilitate dividing them in half. For pills which are relatively large in diameter, splitting of the pill can usually be accomplished without too much difficulty by grasping the pill between the thumb and forefinger of each hand and applying a breaking force. Even with the relatively large pills, the breaking force required is sufficiently great so that it may not be within the competence of the elderly or the feeble or those whose finger-gripping strength or ability has been impaired for such other reason.
The majority of pills are of small diameter and cannot readily be grasped in a manner to achieve the necessary leverage for breakage. Considerably more difficulty is encountered in attempting to break the small pills than is the case with the relatively larger sizes of pills, even for persons who are not unduly enfeebled or handicapped. For these smaller pills, most patients find it necessary to use a kitchen knife or similar implement to shear the pill or score it to a greater extent where it can be broken between the fingers. The pill is placed upon a supporting surface and, when the knife is applied to it, more often than not the pill does not separate cleanly into two halves, but crumbles into several parts.
Apart from the inconvenience, irritation and frequent crumbling of the pill when using these methods of pill splitting, there is also the possibility of having the pill drop or slip and be lost or contaminated, as well the more serious problem of possible injury if the knife slips.